Publisher's Summary

The changes that Charles Handy foresaw in
The Age of Unreason are happening. Endless growth can make for a candy-floss economy, and capitalism must be its own sternest critic. Charles Handy reaches here for a philosophy beyond the mechanics of business organisations, beyond material choices, to try and establish an alternative universe where the work ethic can contain a natural sense of continuity, connections, and a sense of direction.

A communist rant devoid of any evidence

This book basically regurgitates old, failed communist-inspired ideas that were tried and failed in the Soviet Union. If you read ‘The Turning Point’ by Shmelev & Popov you can read a first- hand account of why these ideas don’t work. Handy would do well to pick up a history and or economics book and realise that full employment is not realistic or desirable, that it’s idiotic to suggest companies should “pay people half as much and employ twice as many people” or that companies should employ surplus people just in case more work comes along! Again read ‘The Turning Point’ if you think these do sound look good ideas. The ‘evidence’ in the book is only good for comedy value, aside from a few misleading statistics the evidence boils down to a logic that says ‘I asked enough people and eventually found one person who agreed with me’ such as his friend with a garden patch and one ex-factory worker as if that’s a representative sample. In summary the basic premise of the book is that some people are too stupid to make their own decisions, or to quote the exact phrase “lack the inclinations” to succeed in a capitalist system. So Handy wants to revive all those great left-wing dictatorships and crush the capitalist pigs – yawn, frankly he can get on his bike and go to North Korea if it’s so great.